Re: [Thinkpad] any reasons not to buy dell instead of ibm

> >Very well said, Ray. My experience with Dells and ThinkPads has been very
> >similar to yours. Dells are 2nd to ThinkPads, which makes then pretty
> >decent over all, but not ultimately as nice. Certainly beats being 3rd.

Oh, that would be Apple's job. Used to be known for good quality and good
service for the price that you pay. Now it's like a 2nd fiddle IBM
wannabe with a huge sticker price and expensive/rare software.
>
> We have used a variety of IBM, Toshiba, and Dell machines over the
> years. The IBMs have lasted the longest - we still have an ancient
> 755CX running and the screen and hinges and case are fine. We have
> a variety of Toshiba Portege notebooks - the cases of all of them
> are cracked and the screens will not stay in position. Disks and
> CD drives and various ports have also failed with the Toshibas. We have
> various Dell Latitudes and ALL of them have had problems (motherboard
> replacement, screen replacement, HDs replaced, diffuse white spots on
> the screen (less than one year old), scratches on the screen from
> contact with the keyboard (fairly new C640), and so on. The A21p
> I use daily (it is on for at least 12 hours per day) has had no
> failures and the screen is visually better than any of the Dells.
> As it is large, I don't normally use it with field instruments but
> it goes on all trips with me and to and from the office every day.
> Before that I used a 770E the same way.

Hmm...Okay, let me weight in with my experiences too. I have a Dell
Latitude from 1999 (The old CPi series, not the newer C or D series) and
they are fairly durable. They are also pretty easy to repair and replace,
but my very own CP has gone through 2 hard drive swaps, 2 blown
motherboards, and dead CDROM units. The Inspiron 4150 (Latitude C640 for
the consumer market) have scruffed up screens thanks to the trackpoint,
and my girlfriend's CPiA had its LCD replaced, its HDD replaced, the
speakers blown out, and worse...during its 5 years of service.
Their end user tech support ranges from acceptable to atrocious.

My Thinkpad 560 have gone through merely a new motherboard and a DC board,
and my tp240, after the prolonged repair involving a new chassis, is now
working yeoman service as my "go-to" machine for the last 17 months.
That little beast goes with me anywhere to all my clients.
While I have never really dealt with EasyServe in a personal basis, I have
talked to IBM tech support on behalf of clients. Seems to be well beaten
with a cluebat. They know what I am talking about when I call in to
complain. Drivers are updated on a "best efforts" basis, unlike other
makers who just gives up after one driver revision. (Dell usually gives
you 2)

My Sony Vaios all have a level of brain damage within them, including
flexing chassis, cold solders on logic boards, bad resistors on the CPU
power regulators, and other nasties, and I can't exactly say that they are
cheap or particularly nice to repair. *Ugh*. And their end user tech
support is NONEXISTENT. They seem to think that your machine is a $1700
Playstation 2 or something. Not much in terms of tech support, updates,
and whatnot. They seem to think that once you buy the machine, it's in
your hands so don't bother them...

The Toshibas that I have are merely "okay". They are kind of between the
Dell and the Sony in terms of durability, parts ability and in terms of
end user tech support...they seem to be shrouded in an aura of ignorance.

The Apples are okay. Tech support is FAIRLY good (But then, I live with
a 15 minutes commute of the most patronized Apple store on the East coast
and they have a fully staffed genius bar), but parts and spares are
expensive, and somehow, every apple portable that I buy is very rapidly
obsolete since they are always inferior in some aspect to its PC
equivalent in terms of pure firepower.

Out of all of the machines that I have, I would have to say that the
Thinkpads are the reliable, cheap (to repair, to fix, to whatever), and
easy working ones. Sure, they have a bit of a price premieum, but in the
long run, they are just easier machines to accomodate.

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Received on Fri Mar 12 09:47:46 2004